Global or local warming? - Réchauffement mondial ou local?

Photo: Flaam and Ainhoa Hardy on a local “hunting” trip with Essa . Local hunters complain that the ice melts sooner and sooner every year, shortening their hunting season. It also creates risks: accidents and drowning as dogs and sleds fall through the ice... The goal of the expedition was not to prove anything but to observe and listen. During our interactions with locals and foreigners we noted several indications of at least “local” warming over the years:

- In Ittoqqortoormit (pop. 500), the head of the local grocery store is happy that the ship delivering goods (coming twice a year), is coming two weeks sooner because the sea ice around the village has melted sooner than usual over the last few years.- A Danish teacher and his wife and young boy going back to Denmark for a month of vacation: He says they are less polar bears in the area. A few years ago locals could hunt as many bears as they wanted. Now the quota is 30 bears for the village but they caught only 25 so far for the year.- Over 20 years of coming in the Arctic and in Eastern Greenland, Dr. Olivier Gilg, the chief scientist of the Sagax REVO expedition notes that at the maximum melting of the sea ice in early September, the remaining sea ice was south of Ittoqqortoormit (Scoresby Sund) and that it is now north, a clear sign of warming- After having analyzed 20 years of satellite pictures, Adrian, head of mining exploration at the Citron Fjord mine in northern Greenland notes that the ice in the fjord has been melting sooner and sooner every year (i.e., less ice in the fjord at the same date every year)- A Greenlander (resident of Nuuk) we stayed with for a few days says she feels signs of warming compared to a few years ago: years ago they had lots of snow in Nuuk, now they get much less.- Talking to another group of naturalists on Traill island (NE Greenland), they tell us that they have not seen any lemmings or skuas yet this year. They guess that because the climate has been warming up, other species show up and there is a change in the ecosystem